The mum-of-three was the second finalist eliminated from the reality cooking show's finals week following Queenslander Ben MacDonald's exit yesterday.

While Collins, 38, is an award-winning hair stylist, she admits she still has some learning to do when it comes to styling her culinary creations.

Her lobster with two sauces was deemed the least impressive dish in last night's "no rules" invention test, during which Collins failed to get her salty and crunchy chorizo crumb on the plate.

"I was trying to grow and evolve and make my plating prettier, but it just didn't turn out how I'd really wanted it to," she told APN.

"At this stage (in the competition) just my plating alone could have sent me home."

The Barossa resident has since left the floor of her salon to pursue a variety of food projects.

"I've made myself redundant at my own place," she laughed.

"I've been doing work experience part time at Restaurant Orana in Adelaide and then I'm doing a food column for Barossa Living magazine. I'm really excited for that and I'm getting a market stall at the Barossa farmers markets."

Collins credits her Top 5 finish to the moment she realized her three children could cope without her while she was away filming the show.

"They were so proud for me to be there," she said.

"Once I realised that I was like 'hey be there and enjoy it'.

"During Marco (Pierre White) week everything fell into place for me."

She's also full of praise for last week's guest judge Heston Blumenthal.

"I didn't have a great week with Heston (in the kitchen), but Heston himself was really, really lovely and so down to earth," she said.

"It was nice to walk away from that week getting to meet such an iconic person in the flesh and to go 'wow what a great bloke'.

"You could almost imagine sitting down to have a drink with him. The conversation would be very easy."

She's backing 18-year-old Laura Cassai to win the grand final.

"Laura's got this amazing ability to stay true to herself yet grow and evolve in her own style," she said.

"If Jamie (Fleming) has one of his smash-it-out cooks then he's unstoppable. But if not then who knows, you're only as good as the cook you're having."